HERE IT IS :: The final piece in my triptych of green bugs!!  For the new readers, (first off welcome! you are greatly appreciated!), I started these drawing as something unique that would match a specific color scheme and space in my living room.  But I put so much love in them that I spent a lot of time on each one.  They turned out so beautiful and I'm so excited to hang them up!  Now I just need to find frames for them!

This drawing is based off a Huntsman Spider (with slight color changes).  Their name is given from the fact they these spiders do not build webs, but rather hunt and forge for their prey instead.  Generally this includes insects and other invertebrates but they have been known for digesting small lizards and geckos!  I don't think I'd ever want to come across a Huntsman Spider but they sure can be pretty with their lime green coloring!

I hope you have enjoyed this drawing series since I had so much fun working on them.  You can check out the other drawing posts with the links below!  Also, prints of these drawing will soon be available in my Etsy shop, which will be opening soon (keep an eye out for the grand opening post with more exciting details!).  However if you're already in love with one then email me and I'll go ahead and put in your pre-order!

Luna Moth / Green Beetle / Other Artwork

 

If you haven't had a chance to read my previous luna moth post, let me start by saying, this whole series was inspired because I couldn't find just the right piece of artwork to hang in my living room, so I just decided to make my own!  This green june bug drawing is the second in my three piece series inspired by, obviously, green bugs!  

The first was a delicate luna moth, so to contrast it with a similar color scheme but using a bolder palette, I choose the green june bug with its hard, metallic back.  I again used colored pencils, but didn't add a layer of chalk dusting in order to maintain the shiny effect the pencil coating leaves.

I hope you enjoy this latest drawing!  I've already started the third and final piece, which I'll be posting soon! Now all I have to do is find three pretty frames, I was thinking of a more simple designs, so I can finally hang them in my living room and see them all the time!

          I was honored to have Grits & Moxie (definitely check out her amazing blog if you haven't already!)  host my first ever guest post!  But for those of you who missed it, I wanted to share it with everyone!  

          When we were talking about possible topics, she mentioned things that inspired me, and I started thinking about what has always brought out my creative side, things like color, food, or a variety of sparkly items.  But then I realized I've always been fascinated with the documentation of daily life.  Before my blog, I either had a journal or a list of my adventures that happened each day and I was always very specific.  But now with a camera at hand, I document much more of my life through photographs.  It's truly the everyday adventure that inspires me.  Whether I'm visiting a new exhibit at a local museum, trying a new recipe or doing a monotonous task at the office, like peeling return labels off envelopes, I try to make it more interesting for myself and for my readers.  Playing with 300 yellow return labels, can make any day a little more fun, when you find something to do with them.

          While I had looked everywhere to find the perfect thing to hang on my living room wall, the one wall that just seems a little too bare, I found nothing that quite worked.  Either it wasn't the right color, the right size, or the right style.  So I've decided to create my own!  I'm currently envisioning a set of three, all light green, insect drawings, to be hung together.   

          I started with the first, which is of my favorite bug, a luna moth.  If you've read my blog in the past you may have noticed I'm fascinated by the color and patterns of insects!  (If you're a first time reader:  First of all welcome!  My readers are greatly appreciated!  but here you can read up on my bug collection.)  

         Luna moths are elegant to me.  They are my absolute favorite color (which is rare to find in nature) and they are so gentle for a larger insect.  I pulled out my colored pencils and started to play!  With an addition of a chalk overlay, I made a luna moth that was perfect for my living room!  It looks amazing, and is just what I had envisioned!  

          Now I have two more to go to complete my series! What's Number 2 you ask?  I was thinking of a Japanese Beetle!  But if you have any ideas for green insects let me know!

 ...of course I can't take all the credit, I had my artist assistant at hand!

Moments.

          There are some people, few people, who have the gift of being able to say exactly what they mean at exactly the right moment.  While I can find beautiful words and string them together like crystal beads on a silver chain, my timing is inevitably wrong.  I find now that life is full of moments.  We don't remember our life as a timeline simply flowing together in perfect sequence, but rather as hundreds of moments that we piece together in a order of cause and effect.  There are moments that I can barely breathe, either from searing pain straight from the soul or from absolute to the sky bliss.  But the breaths that bring the moments of healing are in clarity of self, when I realize exactly what I have in front of me, what I have left behind, and what I love the most.  Moments of balance between reality and  ideals, between head and heart, and between what could be and what will be, are the moments of insight.  There are things in this life that I want above anything else, people I love so much it hurts, and moments that balance those two realities that make me who I am and help me become who I want to be.  This is my balance, my insight, and my challenge to be a better person to have moments where I can say exactly what I mean at exactly the right moment.

          Sometimes the only thing that relaxes me is losing myself in the pages of my sketchbook and just letting the next move, the next line, and the next shape take over.  

          So here's the first completed page of my new book!